ICS girls b-ball loses to Western Christian in Div. 5A first round

Saturday

Feb 22, 2014 at 4:00 PM

RIDGECREST — The Immanuel Christian girls basketball team fought hard in its postseason opener on Thursday night, but couldn't avoid a first round defeat. The 15th-seeded Crusaders lost 50-42 to Western Christian (Upland) in the first round of the CIF Southern Section Division 5A playoffs at the Kerr McGee Community Center.

By Anthony GentileSPORTS EDITORagentile@ridgecrestca.com

RIDGECREST — The Immanuel Christian girls basketball team fought hard in its postseason opener on Thursday night, but couldn’t avoid a first round defeat. The 15th-seeded Crusaders lost 50-42 to Western Christian (Upland) in the first round of the CIF Southern Section Division 5A playoffs at the Kerr McGee Community Center. “For us to play a team of that caliber from that kind of league, we played an outstanding game,” Crusaders head coach Josh Madison said. “I was so proud of everything that we did out there.”ICS (15-6) found itself behind 14-4 after the first quarter, and spent most of the first half trailing Western Christian (11-11). The Crusaders used a late spurt in the second quarter to make it a 22-17 game at halftime — after running a 2-3 zone defense for the entire first quarter, they switched to man-to-man then full-court press to slow the Fighting Lancers.“In the first quarter we had the jitters — we came out kind of shaky. We were getting shots off, they just weren’t going in,” Madison said. “At the end of the first quarter, the girls could have quit. They could have just rolled over, but they didn’t and they kept fighting.”The Crusaders methodically rallied in the third quarter, and grabbed the lead midway through the period. ICS had a 31-28 advantage with 3:54 left in the quarter.“I told the girls in the locker room, ‘You’ve got 16 more minutes — 16 minutes and this is still anybody’s game,’” Madison said. “They got back out there and they fought — they scrapped, they started getting the rebounds, they started doing a better job closing out on their outside shooters. That’s what it took, and we took them out of the game for a while.”Western Christian, however, had an answer. The Fighting Lancers closed the third quarter on a 10-0 to jump back in front by seven points, and didn’t trail for the rest of the game.Despite three of its starters playing with four fouls early in the fourth quarter, ICS quickly made it a one-possession game with baskets on consecutive possessions by forward Kacie Doyle and guard Jennifer Mondragon. The Crusaders trailed 42-35 when Mondragon committed a charging foul and fouled out of the game with 4:20 remaining. “I told the girls to empty their tanks and go to their reserve tanks — and they did exactly that,” Madison said. Guard Viviana Munoz scored ICS’ final seven points to keep the threat of a comeback alive. She turned a steal into a fast break layup that made it 46-42 with 1:15 left, but that basket would be the Crusaders’ last as their rally fell short. “All six of my players went out there and absolutely hustled — I could not have been any prouder of what they did tonight,” Madison said. Mondragon had 25 points, 14 rebounds and three steals in defeat. She finishes her career at ICS with 1,170 points and 1,131 rebounds — both school records — and set a single-season scoring record in the 2013-14 season with 458 points.“It’s been a blessing to have her on the team and watch both her play and her leadership,” Madison said. “In practices, she is the leader — she is the most passionate about the game and loves this game.”ICS had a successful season come to a disappointing end on Thursday night. After starting the season with only four players, the Crusaders steadily improved from beginning to end and made the playoffs for the third straight year after a second-place finish in the Hi-Lo League.“It was an excellent season — I don’t think anyone expected to see us finish the way we did this year,” Madison said. “Just watching these girls at the very first practice we had and then watching them today, it was a huge difference. I can’t say enough about this bunch of girls.”